Earlier this month, the Drone Racing League (DRL) set a world record while testing one of their new racing drones! With a top speed of 163.5mph, the 1.76-pound DRL RacerX set the Guinness World Record for the Fastest Ground Speed by a battery-powered remote-controlled quadcopter. Drones used for the DRL racing league are all build by hand, just like this one, which was constructed by DRL’s Director of Product, Ryan Gury and the DRL’s team of expert drone engineers.

The RacerX specifications are:

46,000 RPMs

10S (42V) Powertrain

BeeRotor 80A (10S) ESCs / BLHeli with Multishot

TMotor F80 2407 2500kv

1300mah 2 x 5S R-Line Tattu Lithium Polymer Batteries

APC 5×4.5BN Props

In order to set the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ achievement, the drone had to fly back and forth across a measured course of 100 m (328 ft.), with the official record set as the average of the top speed achieved on each of those flights. The official speed measurement for the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title is 163.5 miles per hour.

The RacerX is capable of a top speed of 179.6 mph

Gury flew the drone along a field in the state of New York and clocked in at the record speed while a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ adjudicator was on-site to verify the attempt. Earlier, prototypes of the drone burst into flames when hitting its highest point of acceleration due to the amount of power applied.